The collection is a collaborative effort that combines financial support from Google [google/predict.html] with PLoS's editorial independence and rigor and the expert opinion of leading researchers from several different disciplines. Rajesh Gupta from Stanford University, and colleagues provide Google's perspective and vision for how systematic application of genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics to infectious diseases could predict and prevent the next pandemic. To realize this vision, they urge the community to unite under an "Infectious Disease Genomics Project," analogous to the Human Genome Project.

Jonathan Eisen, a Professor at the University of California, whose laboratory is in the UC Davis Genome Center, is the Editor of this PLoS collection, which includes 14 articles-all publishing on 26 October 2009-from six different PLoS journals (PLoS Biology, PLoS Medicine, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, and PLoS Pathogens), reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of the topic.

Many scientific journals produce special issues on a topic of interest for their audiences. However, open-access publishing, such as that done by the Public Library of Science, makes it possible to have such a large multidisciplinary cross-journal collection simultaneously available online for unrestricted reuse, regardless of venue (see also the Audio Interview that accompanies the collection: plos/press/plos-emerginginfectiousdisease-audio.mp3). As outlined in the collection's editorial published in PLoS Biology, this collection will add to other "open science" activities that have helped provide insights into infectious disease more quickly than would have been thought feasible only a few years ago.

The faster, cheaper, and more openly we can distribute the discoveries of science, the better for scientific progress and public health. Managing the threat of novel, re-emerging, and longstanding infectious diseases is challenging enough even without barriers to scientific research.

Source: Public Library of Science